Mail News.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 37, 13 February 1901, Page 4

Mail News.

FIRE AT MONTREAL.

FIREMEN HAMPERED BY COLD. [By Telegraph.] [Per R.M.S. Sonoma at Auckland.] San Francisco, Jan. 24. On the night of January 23rd the city of Montreal suffered serious loss by fire. The property destroyed was valued at from two and a-half to three millions of dollars, and included the splendid Board of Trade building, half-a-dozen large business houses, and two more smaller concems. The firemen were hampered by cold weather, which froze the water in the pipes. A great effort only prevented the spreading of the flames over a larger district. VENEZUELANS DESTROY A BRITISH STEAMER. A despatch from the port of Spain says persons from the mainland of Venezuela report that the Venezuelan gunboat Miranda burned the sloop Maria Teresa, owned by a British subject. It is said the Government expected that arms for the rebels were being imported from Trinidad, and ordered that vessels trading with the islands should be stopped. The Maria Teresa, which was anchored at Guiria, attempted to move to smoother waters. The Miranda’s men, without question or explanation, are said to have taken possession of the sloop, poured kerosene over her, and burned her to the water’s edge. The Uquire, Trinidad and Cocoa, all coasting vessels, have been stopped. The rebellion is spreading, and it had been previously reported that the Government seized two steamers of tho Orinoco Steamship Company. The American Government will despotch perhaps . more than one warship to the scene of the disturbance. It is stated that under the eyes of the Venezuelan authorities on December 14th a troop of two thousand men, composed of Venezuelans and revolutionary Columbians, invaded the territory of Columbia and attempted an attack on the town of Cucuta. They were well armed, and have two camion. NEGOTIATIONS WITH AMERICA. The negotiations now pending in China and between the United States and Great Britain will now be tied up for some little time. One effect of this is greatly to diminish the chance of the Nicaragua Canal Bill passing during the present session of Congress. It is believed the British Government will finally consent to the establishment of an amended HayPaunceforte treaty, as the press comment ’ upon it has become more kindly since it has been carefully considered. However, this musirbe the merest conjecture, as no sign has been given out officially, and it is now possible the treaty may be allowed to lapse without being considered at all by England. Powerful American interests are at work to defeat the authorisation of the construction of the canal, so it is evident that there are many who will regard themselves as benefited by the difficulty between England and the United States as to specifications regarding the fortification of the proposed great waterway. DREADFUL FIRE: MANY LIVES LOST.

Early on the morning of January Bth the Orphan Asylum at Rochester, New York, was destroyed by fire. Twentyseven lives were lost. Scores of persons were injured, many fatally. The Asylum was a three-storey wooden structure, and had nearly two hundred occupants. A boiler exploded with terrific.force. Before the firemen reached the scene tho entire structure was a mass of flames. -Volunteers and firemen worked courageously, and the pluck of the nurses aided in saving the lives of most of the children and adults. Many taken from tho building were unconscious from the effects of the smoke. The roof was covered with children, who had been taken there by the nurses, who found other avenues of escape closed. The groans aud cries of the injured and frightened filled the air, and the occasion was one never to be forgotten by the witnesses. All saved were in their night clothes, and, with the dead and dying, were carried to tho houses of the neighborhood, all of which were opened to receive them. HORRIBLE VENGEANCE : LYNCHING. A NEGRO. A barbaric affair occurred at Leavenworth, Kansas, on January 16th. Alexander, a negro, identified as having attempted. to assault a young lady a few days before, and believed to have assaulted and murdered another girl, was taken from gaol by a mob and burned at the stake. Kansas has no law providing capital punishment, and it is declared this lack paved the way for the horrible wreaking of vengeance on a man believed to deserve nothing short of the death sentence. It is declared that now the Legislature is in session it will enact a law prescribing capital punishment. The Sheriff’s defence is that he was helpless in the face of thousands of infuriated men, who attclced the gaol to which the prisoner had been removed from the State penitentiary for trial. They used sledge hammers and chisels in breaking open the doors' and dragging the prisoner from his cell. They proceeded to prepare his funeral pyre on the spot where the body of his supposed victim was found. Alexander protested his innocence to the last, but no attention was paid to his entreaties.